Friday, January 23, 2009

Inauguration Trip Episode 2 - Eve of the Inauguration

Monday, January 19th. Destination: Pentagon City Mall. Objective: To visit the mall, ride the Metro subway, and head to the grounds where the Inauguration will take place.

While we were heading to the Pentagon City Mall, I caught a glimpse of two logos that could use some re-branding themselves. Always have some dumb vehicle in my way while taking pictures.

When we arrived at the Pentagon City Mall, it was very patriotic. Then again, it's suppose to be!

Now, I know that my trip was going to be historical, but I also wanted to capture things that caught my attention graphic design wise. Some of the logos in the mall did just that:

I thought the typeface for Carol's Daughter made it more personal with the cursive handwriting. Along with the flower being there, probably to represent beauty. I just don't like that white rectangle as the background. Maybe an oval could be better.

I prefer the bottom logo for Auntie Anne's than the top one. What is sad is that there are two locations in the same mall for this business. I think they should just go ahead and switch to the bottom logo design.

Using stencil for news as a typeface does not stick well to me. At least to me, I just don't think of stencil being the top choice for news.

The descender for the "g" in "aggreko" looks playful. I also like the orange used to capture one's attention.

After taking the Metro subway to get to the Mall area, it was time to take pictures! And everyone had a camera...my mom, my dad, my sister, and my brother (he was with Presidential Classroom while we were at the Pentagon City Mall).

My mom and sister in front of the Washington Monument.

My dad taking a picture. He is very passionate of taking pictures, I kid you not.

Me representin' Georgia!

After my dad and I decided to come back inside from the cold (my mom and sis already beat us to the mall), I head straight to Starbucks. People who know me well knows I enjoy Starbucks. A lot. I am even tempted to start another blog of my journey to every Starbucks I come in contact with.

Anyway, here is one of the stations that were selling Obama merchandise. Lots of people wanted to purchase them at the Pentagon City Mall...and believe me, the stuff is expensive. A button is worth $8. Just a button! Yet, people still wanted to purchase them. Even to the point where a line started outside of a store.

I told my dad that President Barack Obama is the new Michael Jordan: Just slap an "O" on an item, and it's gold. And hey, they're both from Chicago, so why not? Just waiting on Obama's own basketball shoe from Nike. Wouldn't that be something?

The last logo I captured at Pentagon City Mall. I thought the concept for the logo worked perfectly, using the "M" and "W" to illustrate the attire. It's interesting to me they used sans serif for the type. It really does work along with the "M" and "W" as part of the combination mark.

I was not able to capture Nordstrom's logo, but what I saw really impressed me how their choices worked together. The Pentagon City Mall had the Nordstrom's logo in the san serif (the first image), and another mall I saw had the serif logo showcased outside in the parking lot. Both typefaces show a nice use of thick strokes, while still using thin strokes in part of the lettering. To me, both typefaces work together, not against each other. That's what really grabbed my attention.

Next Time: Episode 3 - Inauguration Day, Part 1. With so many people, the anticipation, and the emotions being extremely high, you know it could not fit into one episode. See ya next time!

2 comments:

Wow, I've never even paid so close attention to logos...But what you bring up makes me see them differently. I especially agree with the Auntie Anne's thing. The bottom design looks so much better. It's just more 'out there', you know? It grabs the attention quick.

Awesome pics, Mr. C! Representin' Georgia. I chuckled at that. :P

You really do update this thing. That's good! Can't wait for the next update!